The invention relates to a liquid crystal cell having two substrates spaced apart from each other which form between each other a cell space filled with liquid crystal substance. Lines, electrodes and other elements are applied on at least one substrate on the side facing the cell space.
In such liquid crystal cells the individual picture electrodes are controlled by a multiplex process. For this purpose, intersecting lines are necessary which are acted on by pulses in such a manner that the picture elements associated with the individual points of intersection are acted on one after the other. Each pair of electrodes of a picture element which form a capacitor is charged or not charged according to the information to be represented. In order for the charge of the picture element to be retained until the next response time, at least one of the electrodes associated with the picture element is connected with the corresponding line via a switch element.
In known liquid crystal cells, field-effect transistors or metal-insulator-metal elements (MIM elements) are used as switch elements. The known liquid crystal cells, however, have the disadvantage that a large part of the available surface is used up by the conductive paths. Thus in one known liquid crystal cell only 64% of the total surface is available for picture elements. The clarity of the symbols to be represented by means of the liquid crystal cells suffers from this. Since, furthermore, the conductive paths cannot be made as narrow as might be desired, limits are placed on the resolution of the picture, particularly in the known liquid crystal cells of small dimensions.